The invention relates to an adjustable carrier for connecting a window pane to a window lift of a motor vehicle.
The carrier is associated with the vehicle door through at least one guide track and consists basically of a base body and a holding body wherein the base body is guided on the guide track of the window lift and the window pane is clamped on the holding body. The holding body is able to swivel relative to the base body by means of a movable displacement means, and an articulated joint connection is provided between the base body and the holding body.
From DE 44 35 008 A1 a solution is known for adjusting the window pane during the course of assembly. The preferably frameless window pane is held inside the door by guide tracks. The guide tracks are able to swivel in the transverse direction of the vehicle about a rotary axis which lies in the upper fixing point of the guide tracks. Adjustment is made by an adjusting device at the bottom end of the guide track.
The drawback with this solution is that the space in the lower region of the door is restricted, as a condition of the distance between the turning point and site of the adjusting device so that no great adjusting paths can be produced. Furthermore the entire installation area is affected, that is the adjusting path has to be taken into account when designing the whole door.
These drawbacks are overcome in DE-OS 28 43 634. The rotary axis of the swivel movement is here in the carrier. The carrier has a ball segment which corresponds with a corresponding bearing shell. A tension screw is mounted centrally in the bearing shell and in the ball segment and engages into the hole in the pane to interact with a tension plate. The adjustment and swivel movement is produced by swivelling the bearing shell. The position is fixed by tensioning with the tension screw.
Adjusting the window pane thus takes place freely within the area. That is, it is necessary to proceed stepwise by the trial and error method in order to reach the correct position. If the ideal position is not reached with the current adjustment step then the pane clamp has to be released. Thus the previous position becomes lost and the next adjustment step has to be introduced. As a condition of this setting principle an undesired vertical displacement takes place when adjusting the pane across the driving direction.
With another solution known from DE 93 07 599 U1 the window pane is fixed on a separate part connected for articulated movement to the base body of the carrier. Between this part and the carrier there is a vertically displaceable wedge so that it is possible to change the angular position of this part relative to the carrier and thus the position of the window pane relative to the vehicle body. The drawback here is that when the connection between the base body and holding body of the carrier becomes loose the connection between the holding body and window pane is also released at the same time.
From DE 35 45 856 C1 a carrier is known for a motor vehicle window lift which has a base plate guided between two guide rails and a holding rail connected to same through a ball joint for the purpose of holding a window pane. Adjusting the position of the holding rail relative to the base plate is carried out directly by means of a threaded bolt on the base plate which engages in a threaded bush of the holding rail.
The object of the invention is to provide a simple solution for swivelling the window pane about an axis lying substantially parallel to the driving direction and through which it becomes possible to position the window pane with precision against an associated sealing contour on the vehicle body.
According to one variation of the solution, the base body and the holding body of the carrier are connected together by an articulated joint and adjusting means for changing the position of the holding body relative to the base body are provided on the carrier and can be operated by means of a tool from outside of the carrier and window lift (by an operator or robot for example). These adjusting means act independently of the fastening means by which the window pane is fixed on the holding body of the carrier. The relative position of the holding body and base body can therefore be changed directly or indirectly by operating the adjusting means so that even when the fixing of the window pane is loosened later on this position remains set.
A displacement means in the form of a displaceable element (such as for example a sliding wedge) is thereby associated with the adjusting means and can be moved by the adjusting means in the direction of the articulated connection between the holding body and base body so that an indirect connection is provided here. In order to form contact faces between the displaceable element with the base body and/or the holding body a circular arc shaped curved cylinder surface with the same radius and same center point is provided both on the displaceable element and on the holding body or base body so that a complete surface contact is achieved during the course of displacement. This has the advantage of making displacement simple and uncomplicated.
Displacement is carried out by operating the adjusting means from outside, preferably through the crash guard strip of the vehicle body. As adjusting means are adjusting screws, threaded spindles, threaded bolts or the like.
A turning angle on the adjusting means is assigned to a precisely fixed displacement path on the top edge of the window pane so that adjustment can take rapidly and with precision.
In another basic variation of the solution the displaceable part consists of two segments of which each segment has a contact zone which is connected to an associated contact area on the base body and/or on the holding body and wherein the tangents at the contact faces, contact lines and/or contact points have different slopes. The position of the swivel axis of the window pane can thus be fixed through the variable slope of the tangents.
This solution has the advantage that the swivel movement of the window pane is not bound to the structural design of the articulated joint but can be fixed freely in space. The contact zones on the segments and the contact areas on the base body and/or holding body can be designed so that the window pane can be swivelled about any selected point in space.